Substitutes Needed

By Press release submission

Oct 19, 2021

Portland Public Schools recently issued the following announcement.

We are experiencing significant staffing shortages

As I am sure many of you are aware, finding employees is really difficult for all businesses right now. This is painfully true for our schools. We are running critically low on staff every day and we need help. Last year we had several community members volunteer their time or sign up to be a substitute for the district. This allowed us to keep our doors open for in-person instruction for the majority of the school year. Unfortunately, there may come a time when we do not have enough staff to safely operate a building. This happened a couple of times last year and we were forced to move to virtual instruction. Closing a building is the last thing we want to do but it is a real possibility. We are at that same point again this year and we need your help.

We are looking for substitutes for all of our positions including teachers, support staff, bus drivers, and cleaning crew. If you or anyone you know have any free time and are willing to work as a substitute please contact our HR Specialist Diana Graef at dgraef@portlandk12.org or call our office at (517) 647-4161. We will walk you through the process and answer any questions you may have.

Substitutes are a critical part of our system and our success

The biggest need right now is for teacher substitutes. To be a teacher substitute you need to have at least 60 college credits. Our admin and teachers are currently covering daily for unfilled sub positions. While we are happy to do this to ensure that students have in-person instruction, it does have a compounding effect on our abilities to educate students. I don’t think anyone believes that “getting by” is good enough for PPS. We expect more and in order to do this we need to have a steady sub pool available to support our efforts. It is evident this school year that the majority of our students have educational gaps caused by the disruptions of the last two years. We are working hard to fill those gaps but we need time. Our subs are not just used to cover absent teachers but we also use them to provide coverage when a teacher needs to develop plans and learn strategies to support individual students and groups of students. Without a sub pool, we are only “getting by” and that isn’t going to work for our community.

Increased pay for teacher subs

To provide an incentive for our current subs and new subs we have restructured our sub pay to pay all substitutes at the highest rate in the county and to reward those that are willing to work multiple days in a week. Our current daily rate is $100 and will move to $120 per day. We encourage our subs to work as many days during the week that they can and those working 3 or more days a week will see an increased pay up to $150 a day. Our long term sub rate will also move from $120 to $150 per day. This change will go into effect on Monday, October 11th. We will keep these rates in effect until December 17th at which time we will review the impact of this increase and determine if it is needed for the remainder of the school year.

Teacher Substitute Pay

Daily Rate (per day)

Sub 3x a week (per day)

Sub 4x a week (per day)

Sub 5x a week (per day)

$120

$130

$140

$150

Increased pay for support staff subs

We also are in need of support staff substitutes that include general aides, student aides, clerical assistants, and secretaries. To fill this role you need to have at least a high school diploma. Support staff sub rates are based on the current pay for the position and range between $11.10 - $12.71 per hour. Starting Monday, October 11th any support staff person who works more than two days a week will get an extra $20 on days 3, 4, and 5. We will keep these rates in effect until December 17th at which time we will review the impact of this increase and determine if it is needed for the remainder of the school year.

Support Staff Substitute Pay

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Hourly Rate

Hourly Rate Plus $20 bonus

Do you want to volunteer?

If you would like to volunteer your time at the school it is best to contact the building principals directly. Here is the contact information for each building:

Contacts for Volunteering

Building

Principal

Phone

Building Hours

Oakwood

Becky Manika

bmanika@portlandk12.org

517-647-2991

8:45-4:00

Westwood

Chris Kenroy